Category Archives: Economics

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Beware the Ides of March!

Happy St Valentine’s Day!

I awoke this morning to a tweet from Libs of TikTok, noting that yet another federal judge has tried to block President Trump’s ‘pause’ in foreign aid spending.

Judge orders Trump administration to temporarily allow funds for foreign aid

by the Associated Press | Thursday, February 13, 2025 | 11:53 PM EST

WASHINGTON — A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to temporarily lift a three-week funding freeze that has shut down U.S. aid and development programs worldwide.

Judge Amir Ali issued the order Thursday in U.S. district court in Washington in a lawsuit brought by two health organizations that receive U.S. funding for programs abroad.

Newsweek noted that Judge Ali was one of President Joe Biden’s last judicial appointees, confirmed by the then Democrat-controlled Senate after the election. Continue reading →

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Credit where credit is due!

I had never heard of Olivia Julianna before Thursday morning, when I saw this tweet from “Bad Hombre.” Naturally, there were many, many responses along the lines that a hunger strike would do her a lot of good.

But, good decent researcher that I am, I decided to look a bit more deeply, and Google searched her, finding her Twitter account. I wanted to see if she had actually declared a hunger strike until USAID is restored. An admittedly cursory look didn’t find anything like that for her, though she does have other social media channels I did not see.

But I did find this from Miss Julianna, in which she tweeted:

I’m actually down 50 pounds because I can’t afford to eat in Trump’s economy 🙁

That’s pretty amazing! The Trump economy caused her to lose 50 pounds! And, given that Donald Trump had been President for only 16 days when she tweeted that, on February 5th, that’s pretty amazing. Way more effective than Ozempic. Continue reading →

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Jenice Armstrong is all kind of sadz. Target, which already has plenty of 'diversity' in their company, is ending their 'DEI' program

My far too expensive Philadelphia Inquirer subscription. I could use a senior citizen’s discount right about now.

As I look at thinning the herd on some of my subscriptions, I note that I am paying more for The Philadelphia Inquirer than for The New York Times and The Washington Post, both of which are better newspapers. But, not only am I more connected to the City of Brotherly Love, the Inky does provide some unrivaled entertainment!

I’m going to miss shopping at Target

Now that Target has announced a rollback of its diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, I don’t know if I’ll ever step back inside.

Continue reading →

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President Trump cancels the left’s electric vehicle policies

I have always held that if someone wants to buy a plug-in electric vehicle, if he can afford one, he has every right to do so. Alas, Our Betters in the former Biden Administration — and I do so love referring to it as the former Biden Administration! — thought that no, it ought not to be a matter of personal choice or preference, but that people should eventually be required to buy a plug-in electric vehicle. Our American left are pro-choice on exactly one thing.

Trump ended the EV mandate. Here’s what it means for the auto industry.

The transition to electric vehicles is a years-long process that is already underway and faces fierce competition from abroad.

Continue reading →

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Big Brother is watching you! Do you want Elon Musk looking over your shoulder?

All of those electronic ‘convenience’ things in our lives, such as debit cards, just mean that businesses and the government have more ways to keep you under surveillance. From USA Today:

Authorities use Tesla data to track Cybertruck before bombing, raising privacy concerns

by Kathleen Wong | Thursday, January 2, 2024 | 8:58 PM EST | Updated: Friday, January 3, 2025 | 12:08 AM EST

Tesla vehicle telematics and records from a Cybertruck are providing key insights into the New Year’s Day explosion in Las Vegas – data that may not have been available decades ago but which raise troubling questions about how governments and companies track personal travel information. Continue reading →

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Sometimes you just have to be an [insert slang term for the anus here] to do things right Look what 'nice guy' Joe Biden's policies have done to us

The Democrats’ and “progressives” — William Teach defines ‘progressives’ as “Nice Fascists” — current cause du jour is housing and the shortage of ‘affordable’ housing. Senator Bernie Sanders, the socialist independent who caucuses with the Democrats, railed that “Almost 600,000 Americans are sleeping out on our streets.” So, I have to ask the Distinguished Gentleman from Vermont, just who caused that problem?

Trump vs. Biden on immigration: 12 charts comparing U.S. border security

By Nick Miroff, Maria Sacchetti and Sarah Frostenson | Sunday, February 11, 2024 | Updated: Sunday, July 28, 2024

Immigration is a key issue in the 2024 presidential race.

Illegal border crossings soared to record levels under President Biden, averaging 2 million per year from 2021 to 2023. The migrants have arrived in every state in the country, overwhelming cities such as New York, Chicago and Denver as newcomers seek shelter and aid. Continue reading →

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Today’s left are crying about increasing homelessness while supporting the policies which increased homelessness

Nina Turner describes herself, in her Twitter biography, as “Educator. Activist. Senior Fellow at @RacePowerPolicy. Former Ohio State Senator & Professor. National surrogate Bernie Sanders 2016, National Co-Chair 2020.” That’s pretty much all you need to know to understand that she’s on the far-left end of the political spectrum.

Dr Turner was secondarily citing a report by the Associated Press noting the recent homeless numbers:

The United States saw an 18.1% increase in homelessness this year, a dramatic rise driven mostly by a lack of affordable housing as well as devastating natural disasters and a surge of migrants in several parts of the country, federal officials said Friday.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development said federally required tallies taken across the country in January found that more than 770,000 people were counted as homeless — a number that misses some people and does not include those staying with friends or family because they do not have a place of their own. Continue reading →

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‘Sanctuary’ policies could, and should, send those who obstruct justice to jail.

We do not normally use photos from The Philadelphia Inquirer, for copyright reasons, but this one is too important. For a newspaper which editorially supports significant immigration, maybe a picture of demonstrators in support of illegal immigrants might have thought harder about an image with three signs in Spanish.

Philly schools’ immigrant student population is booming. Advocates want the district to recommit to ‘sanctuary schools.’

The population of English learners in the Philadelphia School District is on the rise. Superintendent Watlington says he’s committed to ensuring students feel safe.

by Kristen A Graham | Monday, December 16, 2024 | 5:00 AM EST

At Franklin Learning Center, Michelle Ferguson’s students, all new arrivals to the U.S., are worried.

With President-elect Donald Trump promising stricter immigration laws and mass detention and deportation of immigrants, many students at the Philadelphia School District high school that draws English learners from around the city have shared their fears with Ferguson and other staff. Continue reading →

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How does it work, going on strike in a job for which a replacement can be trained in half a day?

This site reported, back in June, how the ‘baristas’ at the OCF Coffee Shops in foul, fetid, fuming, foggy, filthy Philadelphia moved to unionize, and then owner Ori Feibush simply closed all of the shops he owned.

Now the Starbucks Workers United union has announced, on Bluesky, that they ain’t going to take anymore, that they’re going out on strike!

In the heyday of unionization, unions were representing workers who actually had some skills, workers who could not easily be replaced, because their skills were needed to do their jobs, and it took a long time to develop those skills. Perhaps, just perhaps, pulling a cup of coffee isn’t that difficult a skill to learn?

I’ve mentioned it before: rather than driving to a coffee shop, and paying $3.50 or $4.25 or whatever for a ‘barista’ to pull a cup of coffee for me, I can make it at home, in less than a minute, in my Keurig, for roughly 50¢. I’m saving money on the coffee, saving the environment a paper cup to be recycled or thrown in the trash, saving however much gasoline I would burn to get to such a coffee shop, and saving however many miles of additional wear-and-tear on my truck to get me there and back.

I am wryly amused.